Voice-of-the-Guest [VoG]

“Don’t feel bad about criticism or even get defensive. Instead, use it to build a better experience. Your worst critics will be raving fans if they see you take them seriously and then act.

~ Jeffrey Summers

Voice-of-the-Guest (VoG) and Voice-of-the-Employee (VoE) programs are extremely important to your experience building success because it gives you the much needed measurement of your experience and ongoing experience building efforts. The value of gathering guest feedback, information analysis, the resulting process and experience changes and performance monitoring is immeasurable. This is where you can best understand and influence the loyalty drivers of your employees and guests by engaging them in the very process of experience design.

Can You Handle The Truth?

When was the last time that a business or hotel called you to check up on how your last experience went?

When was the last time you wished someone would have cared enough to engage you instead of you having to engage them or you simply decided it wasn’t worth the effort?

When was the last time someone asked you how they could serve your needs best – then actually did it?

When was the last time you felt that someone truly cared enough about you and your business – no matter how much or little it was?

The truth is most “hospitality’ businesses don’t. Restaurants, hotels, resorts, spas, bars & nightclubs, etc… They all treat you like a transaction – including yours.

So imagine for a minute that you were actually more engaged with each and every guest to the point that they felt you cared more than anyone else.

Don’t you think they would be truly loyal? And consistently loyal? And more likely to recommend you to their friends, family and colleagues (and heaven forbid – total strangers!)? That’s what VoG ensures.

VoG has a two-pronged strategy.

We help you with gaining the most crucial guest feedback to measure and analyze guest perceptions about their experience with you.

We Coach you and your staff on how to best align your operations with those guest expectations so that you can create a valuable and differentiated guest experience.

How Do We Do That?

VoG incorporates several elements of the most effective and widely used Voice of the Customer (VoC) models (we refer to them as Voice of the Guest or VoG) in order to get an urgent yet realistic picture of both guest satisfaction with and their loyalty to your business from their experience(s) with you.

We then use the VoG information to create an action plan for you to innovate your systems and process to align your business with the expectations of your guests as well as a plan to facilitate and support more and deeper word-of-mouth marketing (WOMM) efforts. We believe that because it is vital to measure the likelihood that a guest would refer your business to someone in their social sphere of influence, that it is one of the most significant metrics that can be utilized in the foodservice and hospitality business that measures loyalty and at the same time, focuses on the only area where sustainable, long-term and profitable growth can be achieved – the guest experience.

We also include a follow-up question of all contacts and can design a unique survey for each client that requests it, that focuses on specific Guest Experience Management (GEM) issues.

We do this by leveraging the feedback we gather from literally hundreds of contacts with your actual guests to create the necessary programs and systems for you to be able to maintain your business’ focus on the guest and improve in every area that has both a direct and indirect impact on the guest experience.

We do this by Coaching you on ways to look at everything you do inside your four walls and from every line item on your P&L, in terms of how it will affect the guest experience.

Each VoG program includes the following three components;

ENGAGE We contact the guest by phone in order to gauge their experience, and we make sure to do so before their next visit — we don’t wait until the next day. This ensures fresh, honest feedback.

LISTEN Next we engage the guest with the VoG survey and aggregate their answers to get a clear picture of their level of loyalty.

ACT We collate the information we get from your guests and create both weekly- and period -based Trend Reports that outline those ideas that have been most emphasized by your guests from both the positive and negative perspectives. We then create and hold a weekly Coaching session with you and your team to develop and refine your guest experience strategy. We also incorporate a real-time alert feature that notifies you or your unit manager of negative experiences as soon as we encounter them so that you can engage with the guest on your level and begin your own recovery process.

Other Services

Additional Services that can be added to your basic VoG program each period or as an on-demand feature include:

In-depth Guest Surveys.

Voice of the Employee [VoE]

Competitor Surveys

Toll Free Guest Comment Lines

Other responsibilities can be included in any program and their cost consideration should be included in addition to that program’s base cost. (i.e. additional information portal(s) built to gather more information about each guest than is included in each base program, creation and distribution of contact forms or electronic data capture systems to facilitate the necessary information gathering to be successful in any program, on-site visits, etc…)

"Jeffrey provides a level of professionalism that is a cut above the rest. Because of Jeffrey our members are now better equipped to be competitive and survive these tough economic times.”~ Gabe Munoz, Director of Sales, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Greater Kansas City

" We needed a different direction for our employee foodservice operations. Jeffrey was able to work with our operator and create the best concept we could have hoped for - improving employee morale immensely. I have since recommenced him to all of our facility managers." ~ Joe Kincaid, Xerox Corp Foodservice

“Our history with Jeffrey began by hiring him to negotiate a restaurant lease for us, we were so impressed by his knowledge and no-nonsense approach that we hired him to be our consultant which has helped us in too many ways to measure! I would and do recommend Jeffrey to anyone! Except my competition =)” ~ Ted Dorr, Pres. Double D's Pizza

“From the first day Jeffrey came into my restaurant(s), he has redefined the levels of passion and drive for both my staff and my operation. He has positively affected all aspects of our business, from the dish stand to the front door." ~ Eric Metcalfe, Regional Manager, Garfield's Pubs

“Jeffrey’s presentations seemed so in-your-face, but he truly said things we all needed to hear. His belief that any person with the right skills, dedication and will to change what isn't working, spoke to each and every one of my managers. His presentations opened our eyes and ears and allowed us all to believe that our company not only has the potential to be successful, but already has the staff to lead the way.” ~ Brenda Knorr, Director of Operations, JumBurrito

“Thank you Jeffrey for turning our life around in less than a week! I have attended other events and usually leave them at the end, still feeling like ‘What?’ But after your workshop, I’ve been tied to the hip with social (business opportunities). To launch a (new) brand takes a lot of work and no one wants to make too many mistakes. We owe our success to you!” ~ Sherry Bonner Smith, Manager Digital Brand Marketing at Hilton Worldwide

“Jeffrey has an exceptional talent to cut clearly through the issues that impact business today. His communication, recommendations, and direction are clear and focused on resolving and improving the situation at hand. I highly recommend Jeffrey.” ~ Andy Swingley, VP Operations, Max & Erma's Restaurants

Restaurants Rebound

Chains vs Independents

Industry Turnover 2014

*Note that the turnover figures presented are for the broadly-defined Accommodations and Food Services sector (NAICS 72), because the Bureau of Labor Statistics does not report data for restaurants alone.